Spoilers for Astarion’s story in Baldur’s Gate 3 are found in this article.The upcoming Baldur’s Gate 3: Astarion novel is making a massive change to the titular character’s backstory involving the Gur, author T. Kingfisher has revealed. While the Baldur’s Gate 3 book is not intended to release until late September, some copies have already made their way out into the wild, prompting the author to address some fan concerns about why Astarion’s backstory has seemingly been retconned.
For context, Baldur’s Gate 3‘s Astarion is shown as being overtly racist towards the Gur people. It is revealed through dialogue that he was killed by a mob of Gur, who were unhappy with a ruling he had made as a magistrate. Players can directly call Astarion out on his prejudice in dialogue, suggesting he shouldn’t hold every Gur responsible for what happened to him 200 years earlier. It’s a serious flaw with Astarion that adds a lot of nuance to his character.
Baldur’s Gate 3: Astarion Novel Removes His Gur Backstory, Author Says
After copies of Baldur’s Gate 3: Astarion were leaked ahead of its official release, some noted that the Gur had been omitted from Astarion’s backstory entirely. Author T. Kingfisher fielded questions on Bluesky about why this was the case, confirming that it was “specifically because WOTC told me to.” She revealed that her original version did mention the Gur, but Wizards of the Coast is “trying to get away from that.” As for why, Kingfisher said the explanation she was given was that “the Gur came across as Romany-stereotype coded and that had not been their intent.”
It’s understandable that Wizards of the Coast may want to avoid offending nomadic groups through depiction of certain stereotypes, even if that was not its intention with the Gur in Baldur’s Gate 3. On the other hand, there is also the argument that depicting Astarion’s prejudice is certainly not an endorsement of it, and that removing it as part of his character takes away a huge element of his backstory. A flawed character is an interesting one, and given that much of Astarion’s personal quest eventually involves working alongside the Gur and overcoming his history with the group, it takes away from his journey in the game.
From launch, Astarion was instantly one of Baldur’s Gate 3‘s most popular companions. In many ways, this was because of his flaws – it only made the journey to healing all the more compelling for players to experience. There’s ultimately no way to know for sure how much this impacts Astarion’s story until the official release of the book, which is set for September 29, 2026.
As for the games, it’s not clear whether Astarion will ever return in an official capacity. Wizards of the Coast is yet to find a developer for Baldur’s Gate 4, after Larian moved on to work on Divinity. Bringing in the cast of BG3 in future games will set expectations that will be very difficult to live up to, and another developer may want to avoid that when the time comes. The immense popularity of the characters means ignoring them entirely will be tough, though.
- Released
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August 3, 2023
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence
